To do them ad nauseum is hardly skill. A "couple of good sticks" tore apart a 30+ NOE raid. Instead of "Wow, you three sure whooped our arse!" They cried "SPIZ!!!! ZOMFG!! HOW DID YOU KNOW WE WERE COMING!!!"
You see how this works? You claim "skill" as long as you milk the undefended base. Let the opposite happen, we both know what happens and you aren't "Celebrating".
NOE missions are vulnerable in many ways, so why would anyone give a WTG to anyone upping a fighter to kill a goon. If you could be more specific about which event you are referring to about Spies, I could give you a better answer since I do run NOE's and have many times have been compromised by a good pilot either directly or indirectly breaking up the mission, but many more have been successful than not.
To say there is no skill in NOE's you evidently have not participated in some fun ones where your palms are sweating after flying for over an hour. There is planning involved to make one successful not to mention getting there in one piece, I have set missions up where you had to fly nearly 10 sectors to a CV, land refuel, regroup, fly another ten sectors deep into NME territory over terrain and capture the base flying completely oblivious to the NME. All of this accomplished using 110's, Bombers, fighters, goons. Thats Skill sir, not many have the patience or will to spend that much time involved to taking a base. The Germans did the same thing to the US in WWII, landing troops on US soil, we were vulnerable to black ops and clan denstine operations as should this game be.
The most recent event of a questionable "SPY" event was when a player that is known to fly in another country was on the bish side "helping to even out the sides" , he was taking off at the same moment that an NOE was taking off and had been told that this NOE was en route to a specific base. Normally most players would avoid the area or base or just join along. Of course the mission was busted upon arriving and the guy that was accused stayed at alt did nothing to protect the goon or attack the uppers. This alone was suspicious enough and he got an ear full from everyone there.
I am sure this tiype of reporting to the other side happens more often than we know since the loyalty goes to the squad or buds in the other country vice who they are "helping to equal the sides" with. So if your there to "even out the sides" as some have said, participate in what is going on dont make it so obvious that your just not going to fight your buds or fire a shot and you wont be called a spy.
As for you second comment, I have noticed that when I dont run NOE missions and we go into fighter mode, we CLEAN HOUSE, the opposition disappeared or gets with the horde for protection. One thing I have learned is that some of the score hordes dont like to die, neither do the ones that are trying to catch up with them in score, so once there is a higher risk of dying from a superior stick, they refer to the protection of the horde. And you call that skill sir? I will not mention any names, and its not you pacerr, your to easy, I am seeing more of the others that are point hunting instead of fighting, for instance, I shot down this particular pilot last night several times, he was not alone and we were outnumbered since we only had 4 pilots and they were coming with initially 10-12 and tapered to nothing, and at times he had 3 to 1 advantage and always an ALT advantage. He disappeared and later saw him landing kills somewhere else where he could get the "easy" kills, the area we were operating in was silent, not one con, no DAR. Ghost town. I was landing kills left and right, Now that's skill, to demoralize a player or players enough to leave with only 4 guys.
I can tell you this, my score means nothing to me in this game, but it has become a way of judging the integrity of some players that have high scores, they are driven by greed to get the kill for the score and not the fight, this is fine with me since I know you wont find them without the sacrificial lambs that fly with them, hence more kills for me, I find it hilarious when you peel back and kill the lambs and give chase to the fleeing wolf how he will die with no dignity, even in the game. To each his own I guess, but my score has greatly improved and its not that my skill has improved or a drive to be #1, I simply have learned to play the greed card against the point horde pilots against them. Bottome line is the ones that worry about the score dont take the risks of being killed. Is that skill?
Enjoy the game for what it is, a game, many facets of this game are along the lines of history, some are not. Good luck.